My mother's family has six in her generation. She is the oldest, followed by my Aunt Doris and my uncles Mart, Bill, Jim and John. They grew up on a small farm in Stoddard County in southeast Missouri, but are now scattered about, as many families are. They are a remarkable bunch.

Kershaw County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) deputies arrested an Elgin man Friday and charged him with third-degree burglary and several car break-ins after learning his identity from a cellphone he apparently dropped during his alleged crime spree.

The Buffalo-Mt. Pisgah Fire Department recently received a $27,096 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. The department will use the funds to purchase new turnout gear for the firefighters.

Kershaw County Council held a relatively short meeting Tuesday which included the unanimous passage of a resolution honoring the years of service and valuable innovations by recently retired county Treasurer Steve Vincent.

Sometimes the inspiration for my weekly column comes from the strangest of places. Often, there's a hot news story, usually controversial, I feel like espousing my opinion about. That's not so strange. Other times, I think back to something which has happened in my life, hopefully funny, to share with you. That also is not particularly strange. But this week the idea came to me as I sat at home playing my guitar and trying to figure out some new songs I had never played before. None of them were really "new," but they were new to me.

The Kershaw County Sheriff's Office (KCSO) is investigating a report of at least two shots fired at a Cassatt business sometime between 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 a.m. Sunday, while the store was closed.

Crews from Lugoff Fire-Rescue (LF-R) and other Kershaw County fire departments battled a 30-acre woods fire Saturday caused by a passing freight train behind the Pepperidge Subdivision in Lugoff off U.S. 1.

Should the town of Bethune have a traffic light or a four-way stop at the junction of U.S. 1 and S.C. 341 in the heart of town? The town recently requested a traffic light to control vehicle flow through the area, but the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) offered a four-way stop as a compromise, after conducting a traffic study.

As construction continues on the new home of the Humane Society of Kershaw County, generous benefactors also continue to donate funds being matched dollar-for-dollar by Columbia software designer Austin Meyer. The Humane Society hopes to soon relocate from the Walter M. Crowe Animal Shelter to its remodeled facility on Black River Road near I-20 southeast of Camden. The building was formerly a Coca-Cola bottling plant and will be known as the Meyer-Thiel Animal Adoption Center, after Meyer and local animal advocate, the late Judy Thiel.

Years back, in the late 1990s during my first stint living in South Carolina, I was a NASCAR fan. Not as passionate about it as some people, for sure, but I was interested and watched every race on TV and even went to a couple of major races in Charlotte and one in Darlington. It was a lot of fun.

Kershaw County Sheriff Jim Matthews relieved a Kershaw County Sheriff's Office deputy of duty following the officer's arrest by the S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP) on July 4 for driving under the influence (DUI).